Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  From a recent  Fibre Arts Take Two online course - Processes and Possibilities - Cordula Kagelmann  Photos :. Reflection #1 Materials - gelli plate prints and postage stamp image transfer, cotton thread As I reflect on 2021 and as Christmas approaches, I think of the unsettled and disturbed times Covid 19 has brought to us personally, nationally and globally. The Christmas stamp as a feature in this collage, suggests the feeling of protection and peaceful calm the support of loved ones provides. It symbolises hope and its possibility while the torn gelli plate prints remind me of the surrounding chaos. 2. Reflection #2 Materials - magazine pages, threads In this collage, the restrictions and lockdown experienced during the Covid crisis of this year are experiences that have complex layers of self discovery and emotion - fear, anger, happiness, peace, anxiety , sadness and gratitude … While there were harsher social restrictions in 2021 , there were so many stories of h...

  Nature does not hurry, but everything is accomplished ... Lao Tzu  For Tag Tuesday's theme "time and clocks" ,   here is my  collaged reflection on time.  Do you have  favourite saying about "time"? 

 Most years, I decorate a huge Christmas tree with hundreds of ornaments and sparkles, but this year our tree is so different .... it is a small jade tree in a pot, decorated in soft colours .  The  little tree is  from a second generation cutting from my grandmother's jade tree, brought from Hong Kong, or so the family story claims. The baubles are frosted glass with our grandchildren's names on them, made by my daughter-in-law.  I added a few little dolls also in pastels and  I hung some felted balls .  These little balls were made in Nepal, a couple of  years ago at  Seven Women , a centre  which empowers marginalised Nepalese women through education and employment.  There is a single wooden star resting on the top branch  of the tree.  Somehow all this seemed appropriate with the unsettled and disturbing situation  of the fast spreading  Omicron variant of Covid -19  here in Newcastle ( NSW)  - thes...

  Merry Christmas ! 

 

  A few days ago, I read an opinion piece about the absurdity of portraying a white Christmas  with carols about snow related activities in Australia. I thought that it was worth checking if any of our postage stamps have an Australian theme - happily there are quite a few - surfing Santas, Madonna and Child amongst Australian wildflowers and this one - drawn by Kylie Courtney aged 6 in 1988. This koala in a Santa hat looks rather content to be celebrating in the bush on a sunny summery day.  On this card, I have stitched a paper collage to hint of the bush where koalas may celebrate Christmas happily.  

  I am all for recycling, so here is a card that next year the recipient can reuse ... just remove the decorated "tag" and use it as a gift tag  next Christmas!  This is a stitched fabric tag featuring a Christmas postage stamp issued in Australia in 2008.  The stamps from 2008 are amongst my favourites.  And very special Christmas wishes to  the  Tag Tuesday   team and  followers .....